


RAITO-CHAN: A Study

by TheAllKnowingOwl



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alive L (Death Note), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Journalism, Alternate Universe - Light Is Not Kira, Essay, Eventual L/Yagami Light, Female Protagonist, Female Yagami Light, Gen, Genderbending, Investigations, Journalism, Journalist Yagami Light, Post-Death Note: Another Note, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 04:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17974064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAllKnowingOwl/pseuds/TheAllKnowingOwl
Summary: Let’s talk about Light Yagami born a girl.Let’s talk about a world where Light Yagami lives.





	RAITO-CHAN: A Study

Let’s talk about Light Yagami born a girl.

 

Still the same genius, still the same genes, but born female. I want to see a Light who grows up with the same passion and drive for justice, still influenced by the successes of her father. I want to see a Light whose aspirations of police work aren’t met with the respect that her male counterpart garners.

 

A Light whose longing is met with derision instead of approval.

 

“Aw, how sweet!”

 

“That’s nice, but I’m sure little  _ Raito-chan _ doesn’t  _ really _ want a rough job like  _ that _ .”

 

“But how would you raise a family?”

 

No one mentions Soichiro’s ability to do so.

 

So let’s talk about Light Yagami. Let’s talk about a girl who- while turned away from the traditional forms- never really lets go of her longing for justice. A Light who learns that humanity isn’t as black and white as the law suggests.

 

This version is just as tailored as the other, just to a slightly different audience. At school, her skirt is not long enough to be dowdy or short enough to be  _ one of those girls _ , but just the length to suggest respectability with perhaps a little raciness on the side. It doesn’t matter how she styles her clothes or hair- this is still a Light whose looks turn heads from miles around.

 

This is still a Light who learns to take advantage of that.

 

A Light who learns not to deride the intuitiveness and emotional intelligence that the girls around her possess. Girls who were persuaded away from the respected fields of science and law, but whose innate understanding is so more far-reaching than the shortsighted males who surround her. The men she has to learn to charm in order to advance. The men who- after a little practice- become entranced by just the swing of her hips or the quirk of her lips.

 

_ Men are such pigs. _

 

Let’s talk about a Light Yagami who learns how to use her body as a weapon.

 

The other Light, he relied on his words and looks alone, confident that they were all he needed to get by.  _ He _ only took care of his body in the aesthetic sense: anything past keeping his appearance up to standard was regarded as irrelevant.  _ He _ thought his brain was enough.

 

_ He _ was wrong.

 

This Light knows that having twice ( _ thrice _ ,  _ quadruple _ ) as much intelligence as her opponent will only get her half as far in this battle that’s already weighed against her.

 

I want to see a Light who doesn’t bother with tennis. I want to see a Light who masters first ballet, because  _ wouldn’t she be so pretty, Soichiro _ ? A girl who begs and pleads her father into signing her up for self-defence, for Taekwondo and Krav Maga, because while ballet helps her understand this body of hers, it will never be enough. This is a Light who needs to  _ know  _ that her body is a weapon she can use to her advantage.

 

So show me a Light who fears more than death.

 

Let’s talk about a version of Light who studies maps of Tokyo, London, New York and more, at home and abroad, because she will never let herself be caught without an escape plan.

 

A Light who practices parkour on her own- first out of curiosity, then for the thrill- because she knows Plan A is only as good as the contingencies it contains.

 

But let’s not forget- let’s not forget that this is  _ still _ a Light Yagami who knows boredom. The other Light reached this point far sooner: once he had reached the top of his field in both his studies and tennis, he allowed himself to stagnate, in what would eventually lead him to his downfall. This Light is different, but only to an extent, because while there is always a new dance to learn, new styles of movement to master and another opponent to defeat, this Light comes to the same point as the other. Just slightly later.

 

In every universe, Yagami Light will become bored eventually.

 

Just remember though; in every universe, Light Yagami can access her father’s police files.

 

She still solves cases from her computer, but this is a Light Yagami who has learnt not to trust the police. I want to see a Light who, knowing the credit will only go to the officer heading the case, conducts her own investigations away from the police’s prying eyes. A Light who understands biting, scratching,  _ clawing  _ her way to the top.

 

A Light who types up her findings and sells them to the highest bidder: the  _ Asahi Shimbun _ .

 

_ Yomiuri Shimbun  _ did not bother with her. They will soon regret this.

 

This is still a Light who calculates possibilities down to the most minute of reactions. A Light who anticipates the world exploding over a 16-year-old girl who managed to solve a case that’s been baffling the NPA for the past few years. The Director of the Japanese police scrambles to catch the killer that Light has served for them on a platter, and Light moves on to greater things.

 

Let’s talk about a Light Yagami who leaves the NPA stewing in their humiliation to take the world by storm. Let’s talk about a Light who knows exactly which parts to play in order to keep everyone stumbling after her. The media love this Light almost as much as they loved the other Light’s Kira. She’s their darling: a prodigy _who_ _just_ _wants_ _the_ _truth_.

 

But this Light- and every other in existence- will never be content with being someone else’s plaything.

 

Show me a version of Light who graduates early, who reigns To-Oh university two years earlier than her male counterpart. One who writes articles for newspapers all around the world, because even university isn’t enough to keep her mind occupied. A Light who channels her curiosity into a form her family can try to respect: investigative journalism.

 

_ Asahi Shimbun _ replaces  _ Yomiuri Shimbun  _ as Japan’s top newspaper and immediately offers her a freelance position to celebrate. 

 

This Light finishes her Law degree with a year to spare and never looks back.

 

Let’s talk about a Light who isn’t content with mere national issues. Let’s talk about a Light who- after toppling the Yotsuba group for corruption- picks up her camera and moves on to worldwide problems.

 

Trump falls to her words, Blair and Weinstein too. Show me a Light Yagami who makes corporations  _ fear  _ her. Show me a Light Yagami who remakes the world with paper and pen, but without killing anyone in the process.

 

A Light Yagami who doesn’t need a Death Note to make the world a better place.

 

Even though her work becomes slightly more mainstream, this Light is still in the public eye. Little girls stop her in the streets and ask for her autograph shyly, because  _ isn’t she a lady Sherlock Holmes or something _ ? And Light will always answer that Sherlock Holmes is a male version of herself. Remembering the disdain met with her aspirations as a child, this Light sends these children on their way with kind words and encouragement. This Light hopes for a better future.

 

(The NPA gains its first female detective. Light frames the article behind her desk).

 

This is a Light who makes Time magazine’s 100 Influential 2005, coming second behind the world’s greatest detective, L.

  
  


Let’s talk about a Light Yagami who keeps her ear to the ground for her next revolutionary story. Let’s talk about a Light Yagami who goes straight into the lion’s den to interview the insane Beyond Birthday in Atscadero State Hospital the very moment her request is approved. 

 

I want someone to tell me about how even after the initial shock of Beyond’s disfigurement, Light powered through with the interview, using just enough sensitivity and the cutting questions she’s famous for to pry him open like a clam offering up its pearls.

 

(They both knew he was aware of what she was doing. They didn’t care. He had no reason not to).

 

Even though this Light is skeptical at first of the geniuses scattered around the globe, this is a version of Light who has learnt to listen. She listens to the tale of the orphans, with only a letter for a name, all tracing back to Quillish Whammy’s endeavour. This is a Light who offers sympathy when Beyond recounts his time as B and the pressure that drove A to suicide and himself to madness and murder.

 

This is a Light who interviews B only a few days before he has an inexplicable heart attack.

 

(This is a world where Light Yagami is not Kira).

 

(The Notebook still falls though).

 

Tell me about a Light Yagami who shelves her exposé of the Alphabet Orphans when it becomes apparent that the serial heart attacks are no mere coincidence. Tell me about a Light Yagami who tracks the patterns of criminal deaths. Tell me about a Light who- because of her familiarity with the media- comes to the conclusion that Kira needs a name and a face before L manages to.

 

Show me a world where, after watching L’s broadcast in Japan, Light plans her own message to Kira. This may be a world where Light has never left the public eye, but it is also a world where she’s noticed that married criminals and ones who died with the same name they were born with are being murdered in equal amounts. 

 

So show me a world where she changes her legal name a few days before openly challenging Kira to kill her.

 

Show me a world where Light pulls strings in the Kanto region of Japan in order to get her message out, knowing full well that the results of her experiment will be picked apart around the globe. 

 

A world where Light survives Kira, saving the lives of countless people, politicians and celebrities, because she reveals that her name is no longer Yagami Raito. By keeping her new name a secret and living with the one assigned at birth, this is a Light who escapes the Death Note’s effects.

 

Let’s talk about the day after her broadcast, when a scruffy dark-haired man- whose familiarity she can’t quite place her finger on- knocks on her door.

 

Let’s talk about a world where Light lives to work with L. A world where Kira is defeated by their shared might.

 

Let’s talk about a female Light Yagami.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> According to Wikipedia, Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun are Japan's top two newspapers respectively, but Asahi is more liberal than Yomiuri, so that's why Light sends her article to them instead.
> 
> Also, this is endgame L/Light, where Light continues her work as a journalist, but also helps out on L's cases. She also makes sure the successor program is abolished and that reforms are made at Whammy's House, because a suicide victim and murderer in the first generation and two out of three dead in the next sets off a few alarm bells. It's a wonder the whole plan wasn't completely redone in the original universe. 
> 
> Apparently, about 22,000 officers out of around 287,900 in the prefectural police are female, so let's just pretend this happened after this fic.


End file.
